Vamos Boca!

Today I went to my first Argentine soccer game, which just happened to be a Superclasico. It was Boca Juniors vs. River Plate in the Bombonera, Boca's stadium. My coach from Mequon Soccer Club played for Boca back in the '80s with Maradona, and he came down for the game. He also managed to get Fran and me tickets...kind of. The whole day felt like a drug deal or something. Fran and I tried to hail a taxi to the stadium, but no one would stop for us. He ended up taking off his Boca jersey because he figured taxi drivers were trying to avoid driving into the mess around the stadium (or were River fans!). We were supposed to meet Cacho's friend on this street corner, but we couldn't find him forever and no one was answering the cell phone numbers Cacho had given us. Finally this guy comes up to us and asks if we're with Cacho, but doesn't introduce himself or anything. We follow him around for awhile as he talks to random security guards and men in suits. It is honestly like the mafia...people were begging the guards to let them in because they knew this or that person, and people were being escorted in from cars and stuff. Also, there were 1100 police officers with rifles. Anyway, we finally get in the first gate, but then end up waiting at a second gate for like an hour. The original "friend" hands us off to another guy, but the tickets he gives us come up as already used at the scanner thing. So we wait again, and at this point Cacho's still not answering his phone and we're thinking we're not going to get in. Finally, five minutes before the game started this guy grabs us, pulls us through this crowd, and just says "they're with me" and we proceed to walk in without tickets. We raced up to the third tier and, having given up on Cacho, just found a spot to stand in the aisle of the highest "popular" section. The popular section is the least expensive and where all the hooligans and real Argentine fans are. The video I've attached is from right before kickoff, when the Boca players were coming out. Basically, the game was insane. I felt like I was going to be injured several times. I had to keep my hands over my pockets the whole time because of my phone and my camera. The game ended up being 1-1, and after the Boca goal everyone went nuts and we almost fell forward. There were balloons, flags, fire works, smoke bombs, flying papers. Our row unfurled the top of one of those HUGE flags you see covering a section of fans on TV. One of "La Doce," or the actual mafia of Boca who always initiates violence and gets arrested, was yelling commands at us about the flag. At halftime you literally couldn't have gone anywhere if your life depended on it...people were just sitting on top of each other. The whole time the stadium was shaking from people jumping, and Boca has a million songs that people scream at the top of their lungs. I also heard more swearing than I've heard anywhere else in my life. The actual playing of the game was almost hard to pay attention to, there was so much else going on. After the game we, after a lot of waiting and phone calls, met up with Cacho. He was wearing his Mequon Soccer vest, which was funny. He also introduced us to his nephews who apparently now coach in Mequon as well, and another former Boca player who was the coach of the Argentine women's national team. This guy ended up giving me his jacket, walking us to his appartment, introducing us to his son who plays on the Boca "minor league" team, and driving us to the subway station. It was kind of sketchy seeming, but he was Cacho's friend. Also, he kept talking to me about how I played and telling me I should play with one of the women's professional teams here. Cacho actually told me he'd already given my number to his friend with the Boca women's team (didn't know such a thing existed...) so I could have a try out and try to play with them. I don't exactly feel up to trying out for a professional team, haha, but I promised I'd give it a try, since women's soccer here is basically a joke, from what I've seen. All in all, it was a super fun and very cultural experience. I had thought going to a Real Madrid game was going to be the best soccer I'd see in my life, but this was like 10 times better. Crazy is really the only word for it. It definitely lived up to my expectations, except for that we didn't see any violence or riots or police stand-offs (or anyone die, for that matter) which was good. Now Fran is telling me I shouldn't be writing this stuff because the Boca mafia will actually come kill me, haha. Well, I have a 20 minute presentation on the Mormons for my theology class Tuesday so I must go. Vamos Boca!!